


i hope that fate forgives us

by shibyn



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Aqua-centric, Character Study, Gen, The Realm of Darkness, and pre-fragmentary passage?, mentions of other characters but none of them really appear, post-fragmentary passage, sorry guys i love aqua
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-02
Updated: 2017-06-02
Packaged: 2018-11-08 05:17:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11074827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shibyn/pseuds/shibyn
Summary: Being in the Realm of Darkness for so long has her between giving up entirely and refusing to go down.snippets of Aqua's time in the Dark Realm.





	i hope that fate forgives us

**Author's Note:**

> well here we are
> 
> guys I love Aqua with my whole heart. I really wanted to see more of what it was like in the Realm of Darkness, but 2.8 is only so long and I never actually played the game ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ this adds more to what it was like, as long with similar but not really exact scenes from the game, so I took a little bit of creative freedom in some parts, but y'know
> 
> Aqua's emotions and thoughts are kind of messy in this too? I mean, who's wouldn't, especially after going through the hell ride that was 0.2 and now being thrown into an abyss in place of her friend? I had her not focus so much on Terra and Ventus so much in this (even though i love them wholly too,,) because even though they are important, I didn't really feel like it was necessary to have them in here constantly? 
> 
> the title is snatched from Used to Be by Arrows to Athens!
> 
> if you have any questions, feel free to ask me anything!

True to it's name, the Realm of Darkness is… well, dark. Constantly dark. The only steady source of dim light is from flickering streetlights if she's in a city, strange rocks that cast dull lighting in caves, or the moon. The moon never moves from its place in the sky. The light of the moon would've been comforting in a different situation-- but in here, she feels like it mocks her for the life she left behind.

Aqua has no idea how long she's been in here. But what she does know is that her Keyblade hasn't left her hand in _weeks_.

There's finally a lull in the heartless. She stays on guard, just incase it's a farce-- these heartless seem to get smarter and smarter each time she encounters them. Nothing moves in the shadows; no eyes, no writhing figures of dark. Nothing comes from the alleyways, nor from behind trash bins or through the windows. For the first time since she stepped foot in this town, everything is still.

She finally lets out a breath she's been holding, relaxing her stance. She resists the temptation to just drop to her knees and _rest,_ because once she rests, she won't want to get up ever again.

There just isn't an an end to them. Heartless come at her from every nook and cranny, never resting-- she has to keep going, but they're _in her way_. Always. She can never let her guard down-- any faltering could let them strike her in a blind spot and she'll be done for.

Her strikes are becoming more and more sloppy. There's no helping it-- these heartless just aren't worth the time or the energy. She-- she has to find a way _out._ She'll go mad if she stays in here much longer. She can't bear seeing the worlds she once walked through appear in his hellscape.

She doesn't recognize the town she's in. Just another nameless world consumed by darkness. Once upon a time, when she first came across empty towns and frozen cities, she wondered where its residents went after the world was consumed.

As awful as it is, she can't bring herself to care about it anymore. There’s nothing she can do about it, no matter how much she wants to help.

The streetlamp is cold against her skin when she leans on it. She dregs up a curaga for a particularly nasty cut she got on her bicep-- she can't tell if she's getting more sluggish or if the heartless are getting _better._ The wound closes and seals seamlessly in little to no time, but does nothing to get rid of her fatigue. Of course not. It hasn't the last dozen times she's casted it, but she likes hoping it'll do _something_ one day.

Sometimes she wonders if this is all a dream that she'll wake up from, home and in her old bed, safe and sound.

But the aches and the pains and the _endless stream of heartless_ always makes that thought vanish.

Aqua sighs, pushes off from the streetlamp, and continues walking. The darkness has to end at some point, right? She wonders how long it'll take her to walk there.

 

\--

 

She finds a broken mirror along her trek while going through a city street. She nearly doesn't want to see the mess that she is right now, but she ends up peering at her reflection anyways.

It's no surprise she looks like shit. Her hair has become matted with dirt and has become a couple of shades duller. She knows her hair has gotten long enough to reach the middle of her back-- she uses a torn strip of her sleeve to pull it back-- but it's disheveled and greasy and overall just _gross._ Her cheek has a colorful bruise from a delightful encounter from earlier, along with dozens of scrapes and cuts lining her face.

Surprisingly, she doesn't have bags under her eyes. She hasn't slept since she got here, and she hasn't really _needed_ to sleep or felt like doing so. (It's too unsafe and she's too unarmed and they can strike and _kill-_ -) Maybe it's got to do something with the passing of time? but her hair is growing, so time has definitely got to...

Something flickers in the corner of her eye, something in the mirror. She tenses up immediately, swinging her keyblade backwards to hit the--

but nothing's there.

Her grip tightens around the hilt of the keyblade. There's no sense in wasting time here, worrying over her reflection. (And what was she thinking? leaving her back out in the open, unaware--) It's not like she needs to be presentable to anyone.

(She doesn't like the lingering thought of _Not ever again.)_

 

\--

 

"Do you guys have anything better to do?" Aqua asks to open air, more or less directed to the heartless she sees creeping out a few paces from her. She doesn't move to slay them immediately and waits as they approach. "Y'know, can't you play cards amongst yourselves or something?"

Sadly enough, that was probably the first time she's spoken in awhile (it feels like it, at least) because her voice aches and cracks at a vowel. She cringes at herself. And she when finally talks, it's only when confronting heartless? She's really loosing it out here.

There isn't a particular hurry to her motions. These tiny heartless are more of an annoyance rather than an actual threat. One of them takes a brave leap at her, only to be bat aside with a simple flick of the wrist. The rest come at her in pairs or in groups-- randomly and out of order. Maybe they hope to confuse her or overwhelm her. It doesn't really make a difference in the end.

These aren't many heartless to begin with, so the battle's done before much really happens. The opening she was in-- a small field with debris and rocks from a nearby town scattered about, surrounded by trees-- funnels down into a small pathway in the woods. There isn't another way to go but backwards. She sighs and hopes heartless won't come in swarms while she's here.

The woods are quiet for the most part. There are no bugs to provide a white noise, no heartless to try and catch her off guard. It's nearly… _peaceful,_ she'd dare say.

She looks towards the moon. 

Something pokes out in the distance, far beyond the twisting trees of this world and right in the way of the moon. Aqua's heart stutters at first (she thinks it's a colossal heartless and she doesn't have the room to _fight_ one of those in this tiny pathway in the woods--) but it's-- it's something she _recognizes_.

The clock tower of Cinderella's castle.

 

\--

 

Out of all places, she least expected Cinderella's world to be in this hell hole.

The pathway to the grand stairs at the front was destroyed-- she had to find a detour to make her way over. The only way over was to climb over a mess of demolished ground and hop over some endless pits, but, y'know, whatever it takes. There's been a surprising lack of heartless in this area, and frankly, she's pretty sure it means some crazy strong heartless might be nearby or worse. She just hopes it's not in the castle.

The castle is no different from the time she went. Still large, still empty. Nothing new. It's just more… dreary. It no longer holds the light and hope that it did previously. (She wonders how Cinderella and Jaq are doing and if they managed to survive begin engulfed by this hell. Or maybe since she hasn't seen them, they managed to escape?)

It's a tiny bit heartbreaking. If a place of such hope like this could be taken over, then what stands in the way of darkness?

She turns around, begrudgingly resuming her trek to the end of the world, when someone calls out.

"Aqua!"

Despite everything she wants to do (she recognizes that voice! s _he recognizes it!_ he's-- he's _okay!_ she-- she needs to know--), she tenses so much that everything hurts. Her knuckles are white under her gloves, gripping the keyblade handle so hard she's nearly afraid it'll break. But-- but he-- ( _how is he here how how how_ )

Aqua breathes in shakily, trying to calm her heart. She forces herself to loosen her grip on the keyblade, and she turns around to Terra descending the grand stairs.

She feels like throwing up because of the cluster of emotions going through her. Terra-- he's unharmed, his hair isn't white, his eyes _aren't gold_ \-- reaches the bottom step, looking at her with a small smile. 

Everything about this feels _off_ to her. Terra-- he's not meant to _be here._ He got out of the darkness, didn't he? Aqua made sure he was saved. Well, at least, she _tried_ to, since the darkness is a fickle thing and a piece of shit. But Terra… he looks to be looking far beyond her, too stiff, too _unaware_.

(One should never be unaware in the dark world. It's what leads to their demise.)

A feeling of dread wells in her gut. His face doesn't change, his eyes never focus on her. He doesn't open his mouth to speak. By now, he would've fretted over her, maybe asked a billion questions, maybe...

"You…" she begins weakly, almost unwilling to find an answer to her questions, "You… aren't Terra, are you."

There is no response. She reaches out tentatively towards him. Her hand passes through his with a fizzle of light, and soon enough, Terra fades away in a mist of gold light.

 _Ah, of course,_ Aqua thinks, clenching her fist and turning away from the grand stairs, _of course I would start seeing things._

 

\--

 

She sees things frequently.

It's usually of heartless that are never real. She swings at things that aren't there and gets up on guard for nothing. It makes towns or cities or forests or _whatever_ that much more unsafe (being distracted by nothing can leave an open spot for real ones to _attack_ ).

But sometimes she sees people. Those are worse.

Terra lingers around towns and cities. He hides behind debris and flashes in window reflections as she passes them. He never speaks, never moves, and never looks at her. It's incredibly unsettling, but she's learned to brush it off after a while. (At least, she liked to say she does.)

Ventus shows up anywhere, really. (The first time she spotted him was when she tore through a heartless with her keyblade, and there he was, standing a few paces away and looking at her with a blank expression. It had shook her to the core seeing him like that, and she forced herself to turn away and leave.) He likes standing in open spaces or sitting on things that aren't meant to be sat on. It’s very like him to do that, but Aqua knows this Ven isn’t even close to the real one.

She sees people she vaguely remembers in the corners of her vision. She sees Zack and Aurora and Snow White and so many others in the shadows. She never gets a good look at them before they vanish.

She swears she sees herself in the shadows, too.

 

\--

 

Aqua refuses to lose hope.

It's what everything in this place wants her to do-- the heartless, the destroyed realms of where she once was-- it all wants her to give up and just wither away.

She will _not_ give them the pleasure of that. Regardless of how exhausted tearing through heartless makes her, of how awful it is to see places once so bright become lost in the darkness, of how _alone_ it is out here--

She will _not._

 

\--

 

Colossal heartless are always a pain to fight. Always. They're nearly tenfold her height and always pack powerful hits regardless of how slow they move. They summon the tiny, annoying heartless on her in the middle of the battle to distract her, and it always _works._  

And she absolutely dreads the field full of these colossal heartless. 

They have enough decency to not gather around and squash her like a bug after cornering her. But there's _not an end to them._ She finishes one off, and then another first comes swinging towards her that she either barely blocks with her keyblade or is smacked away completely.

Aqua wipes away blood leaking from her nose, conjuring another spell as she runs out of the reach of the heartless. _How many are left?_ Her eyes flit the colossals, but her concentration is broken by skidding out of the reach of dark magic. _I have to be careful before they begin to overwhelm me--_

She takes a running leap into the air to slash haphazardly at it's leg. It staggers awkwardly, but it doesn't fully drop yet. She curses aloud-- _that was meant to cut through--_ and precariously raises the keyblade to block a heavy blow--

\--only to see something dart in front of her and take the hit instead.

Shock jolts through her as she crashes into the ground. The thorns lining the ground tear up her shoulder and arm, making her wince in pain. But she doesn't take the time to heal-- she lurches to her feet, looking around wildly for _whatever that thing was_.

A blast of dark magic nearly knocks her off her feet. It wasn't directed at her-- she'd be embedded in the dirt if it was-- but it still managed to uproot all of the ivy growing around her. Raising her arms to cover her face, she finally spots something that was neither _heartless_ or _plant-life_  

The keyblade gleams as it bears down on the heartless, shearing its arm clean off. It makes no noise as it writhes, swinging with more vigor at the wielder. They aim to parry, but underestimate its strength and is launched towards a patch of thorns from the heavy hit. Aqua lurches forward, casting a spell to soften the landing as she dashes its way.

 _"Mickey?"_ Aqua blurts when she reaches him-- Out of _anyone_ it could be, it's _Mickey_ who pulls himself out of the thorns with a grimace. The spell had saved him from completely shredding his back and arms, but still cost him a few long gashes

He blinks owlishly at Aqua, mouth agape. " _Aqua?_ You--" Mickey cuts off when the heartless looms over the two of them, to which both leap away before a fist crushes the ground where they once stood.

There's something unreal about another keyblade wielder being here-- there's something unreal about _another living thing_ being here. They manage to tear down a couple more colossal heartless in the time it would have taken Aqua to cut down one. (Every time when Mickey just barely comes into the corner of her vision, panic surges through her and she nearly _swings_ at him. But she catches herself, whole body tense as she tries not to tear down her ally.)

(He never notices her wavering. She wouldn't know what to say if he did.)

The colossal heartless seem to be wading away as they pick through them. They somehow know that two keyblade wielders would certainly tear through them all. (It's not like Aqua couldn't finish them all off. It just-- would take _days._ ) And soon enough, the two of them slay the final heartless, its body dissolving into oblivion.

Mickey looks worse for wear. He probably overextended himself while fighting-- it must've been tenfold the amount of heartless he usually fights back in the Realm of Light. _Speaking of that..._

"What are you _doing_ here, Mickey?" Aqua asks, looking at him cautiously. There's something off about this. There's no reason _Mickey_ would be down in the Realm of Darkness-- there isn't a way he _could_ be here. But then there's also the fact that he can interact with her-- would that mean he's _not_ an phantom? or is he some kind of advanced phantom that can--

"The… the heartless has been taking over worlds," Mickey says, dismissing his keyblade (it strikes a moment of confusion in Aqua-- _why would he do that?),_ "There's something I have to do to prevent them from continuing to destroy worlds. But-- I never thought I'd find _you_ in here, Aqua! We looked everywhere, but never here!"

"You… were looking for me?" Aqua echoes. "How long has it been?"

It's just then Mickey realizes. His voice drops when he says, "Ten years."

 

\--

 

Aqua nearly does not believe Mickey when he explains everything to her.

She's been in here for _ten years_ . She knew she was in here for so _long_ , but _ten years_ passed in the Realm of Light. How many things had changed while she's been in here? How are the people up there doing? Are they all--?

In those ten years, darkness had been consuming world after world, Mickey tells her. Heartless have been on rampages. To stop everything from falling into the abyss of darkness, there's a door they have to lock in both realms. The Key of Darkness resides somewhere in here, and Mickey asks her if she can help him find it. She agrees without hesitation.

And then Mickey tells her the one thing she never thought would be able to happen: _she can leave with them._

It's nearly too good to be true. She nearly doesn't believe it.

 

\--

 

Mickey adapts fast in this place, but Aqua can see it’s slowly wearing him down. When she recommends that they pause and have a breather, she pretends she doesn’t hear his quiet sigh of relief.

They’re in a part of the realm that she hasn’t been to yet. Jagged rock structures made up the unstable ground, as well as the walls of this place. It’s like they’re in a cavern, but the place is so open that she’s almost hesitant to think of it like that. Some rocks are illuminated in dull shades of blue and purple, lighting up their pathway.

Mickey plops down beside one of these rocks, dismissing his blade. “I’ve never seen heartless like these. Do ya think they’re only in here?” he asks, looking off towards some heartless lingering on another level, unaware.

Aqua shrugs. “Not sure. The first real time I’ve seen heartless was when I came here. They’re kind of like Unversed, I guess, with different forms.”

He looks up curiously at her, clearly noting that she isn’t sitting down and still is clutching her keyblade but says nothing about it. “And you’ve been fighting these all this time? Gee, Aqua, no wonder you’re a Keyblade Master!" 

The name makes Aqua blink in surprise. It’s been awhile since she’s even thought about that-- it’s been so long since she was named one, after what happened with Terra and Ven--

Aqua smiles kindly, unsure how to answer him. “It’s not like a title really helps much in here,” she says, and then cringes internally. It’s been so long since she’s last spoken to someone it’s like she forgot _manners_ . She probably shouldn’t have said that. It’s nothing _too_ bad, but it can be an insult to other Masters--

“Well, you’re right,” Mickey starts, seemingly taking her words without a negative thought. He seems to look a little sad. “I don’t think anyone can really brave the darkness as well as you have, Aqua. Maybe even other Keyblade Masters probably couldn’t have lasted ten years in here and still have their hearts be so strong.”

He cringes at his words and looks up to the ceiling, pressing his hands together like he’s apologizing, “Sorry, Master Yen Sid! He’s probably gonna strike me down when I get back for talking smack about him--” 

Aqua snorts at him, trying to keep herself from right out laughing. “Don’t worry, Mickey-- I’ll keep mum about it,” she says. She doesn’t say how much the words mean to her. And she certainly doesn’t say how her will was beginning to fray before he came here.

What he doesn’t know won’t mean anything.

 

\--

 

Aqua steps out into the sun.

It nearly blinds her after being in the dark so long, but it's warm out here and the air actually tastes of salt water. Sand shifts beneath her feet, her armored boots making it awkward to walk in, but it's so different from the dirt or stone she's walked on for days (or years). Everything is so… different from the endless plains she's been upon.

(How long would it have taken for her to get here if she kept wandering like she had before? Would she have ever found this place? Or would she be stuck in the oblivion, never seeing the way to this temporary haven?)

Nonetheless, she welcomes the warmth of day.

There is a wooden walkway and a few palm trees along the shoreline. The day is clear and bright, no clouds to block out the rays of the sun (A faux sun? Or--?). Mickey even seems to be enjoying the change of scenery. Although he hasn't nearly been in here as long as she has (and hopefully never _will_ ), it seems like the dreariness of the dark as been dragging him down.

Something feels familiar about these islands. She doesn't know why, but she swears she's seen these wooden walkways and the tiny hut built into a cave side--

And it clicks. She _recognizes_ these islands-- some time ago she met a pair of kids here, patted them on their heads, and sent them on their merry way. She knows this island is an abnormality-- no place in the world of darkness could ever be so bright-- and maybe, just maybe those kids are still safe. ( _Or would they be teenagers now? How old did they say they were?)_  

"Aqua? A penny for your thoughts?" Mickey asks, noticing her stillness as she thought.

"I've been here, I'm fairly sure," Aqua says, quirking her mouth. "I met two kids here before I went into the darkness. Before this world was consumed into darkness, if it is. Strange, isn't it?"

"Ah, so you also think this place is strange?" Mickey notes, looking around.

Aqua shrugs. "I mean, this is the only place with the sun that I've ever been to since coming here. Do you possibly think this is where the key resides?"

Mickey looks dejected. "I'm not sure. Even if this place is abnormal, it might not contain the key."

"Well," she says, clutching onto the hope that this key holds for her, "it doesn't hurt to look."

 

\--

 

The last place they look is in the cave.

The cave is large, echo-y, and barren. It was a normal children's hideout near at the entrance, but past through a small doorway, it truly becomes empty. The air is stale in here, too still, and Aqua cannot help but feel something will happen.

The sound of ocean waves is a distant white noise under the sound of their footsteps. They haven't walked for more than a few minutes in here, but it feels like they are miles from where they began.

Aqua's hope is dwindling. The cave walls illuminated by a spell on Aqua's keyblade reveal nothing for them. She does not want to admit it, but coming in here might have been a mistake.

"Do… do you see that?" Mickey asks out of the blue, pausing to squint at something in the distant shadows. Aqua halts, lowering her keyblade and by reflex slides into a defensive stance.

She nearly misses it. A small pinprick in the shadows-- so small it's a miracle Mickey spied it-- lays beyond them. There has been no noise aside from the two of them breathing and walking, but that doesn't mean heartless can still spawn in here. But the light is too soft to be the eyes of a heartless, so maybe it's--

"… _the key."_ Mickey breathes in relief, picking up his pace to a jog. Aqua follows behind, nearly not believing her own eyes.

The Key of Darkness is a normal keyblade. It's nearly anticlimactic at how average it is. Mickey reaches out cautiously towards it, grabbing the hilt and pulling it out of its cloud of light.

"The door of darkness tied by two keys, the door of darkness… to seal the light," Mickey recalls aloud, moving the keyblade to look at it. "We've got the keys now, so all we have to do if find the ones to close the door!"

 _We're nearly there,_ Aqua thinks. "You've got the keyblade to do the unlocking, so I'll close the door for you." she offers. This whole deal with closing the door is confusing, but she's willing to do whatever to help him do it.

Mickey looks towards her and shakes his head. "There's… already a person to do that job, sorry." He looks vaguely sad, as if he knows her feeling of wanting to help 

Aqua barely gets a noise of questioning out before the cave _shakes._ It's not violent enough to be an earthquake, but it still manages to make Mickey lose his balance and Aqua stumble. Light momentarily blinds them-- from where, she doesn't know-- before every aspect of the cave changes.

She mentally flips through every spell on tab as the light fades. A side of the cave is gone, now opened to oblivion. The area is just as empty as before, but something about this sudden change makes Aqua want to leave.

"Are you alright, Mickey?" Aqua asks absently, helping him up from his spot on the ground. He looks slightly flustered at being knocked off balance, but she only smiles at him. 

"I'm alright, but…" he takes a sweeping look around the cave. Too many things have changed for this to even be the same place as where they began, but Aqua wouldn't be surprised at the antics of the Realm of Darkness.

Both of them move further into the open space on guard. The open oblivion to the side is disconcerting enough that neither of them put their backs to it, but heartless can come out and attack from anywhere. Everything in Aqua wants to _run,_ but she refuses to obey.

Mickey spots the door first. The door is nearly too perfect, too pristine to be in this place. It stands out with the pearlescent shine of it. Both of them know exactly what the door is.

The door to Kingdom Hearts.

"That's it?" Aqua breathes. The door is slightly ajar, and she wonders if that's why the darkness is able to escape.

"Yep," Mickey says. "Well, it's not exactly the Kingdom Hearts you know... It's small, but it's still the heart of many worlds!" Mickey pinches his fingers together, as if indicating its size.

"And we need to keep it from being ajar like this, correct?" she guesses. Mickey nods in appreciation.

"We're ready to do this. Sora is in the Realm of Light with his keyblade, and we're here. Now all we need is-- _Riku!"_

Aqua jerks at his sudden shout. She looks to where Mickey's pointing and sees a person with silver hair running towards the doorway. A flickering image of the two young boys at this island goes through her mind, and just only now do the names _Sora_ and _Riku_ click.

Mickey turns to her, grinning at her with joy, "Let's go, Aqua!"

Her heart swells, and she steps forward--

\--only to hear the ground explode behind her.

She turns to see the stream of heartless that followed her throughout this _damned_ realm. She forgets about Mickey and turns to parry against any attack this thing throws at her, but it forgoes her and heads--

_right to Riku._

Too many things flash through her mind-- _if it gets to Riku, he'll be killed; it if gets to Riku, we'll all be stuck here; if it gets to the door, it'll go into the realm of light and destroy everything_ \-- and she moves. She summons forth whatever power she has, and leaps in the way of the tide.

 _"I refuse!"_ She yells, and throws everything she has at it.

The tide of heartless crumples up into a ball, chained down by magic. The force of impact nearly sends her flying backwards, but she holds fast. No matter of how compressed it is, the strength is still _there_ and Aqua has to bite her tongue and weigh it down with everything she knows to keep it from lurching out of her hands.

 _"Aqua!"_ She hears Mickey yell through the blood rushing in her ears. A quick glance his way shows him running to aid her before the heartless yank her in another direction.

 _"Go!"_ She shouts, a raw sound from her chest. Her arms nearly feel like they are going to tear off but she will _not_ \-- "Go without me! _Go,_ Mickey!"  

Mickey halts in panic, looking back towards Riku and back to her. She's just about to yell at him again when she feels everything this lock up and strain and the spell _bursts._

The tide bursts from its confides, shooting out in every direction in a fit of rage. _No no no no_ , Aqua chants in her head, unable to breathe. She whips around to Mickey, to Riku, _this can't be happening no no no_

She hears rushing heartless too late and the tide plows into her. She's lifted off the ground and thrown about in the tide. She distantly hears Mickey yelling, but it's muted by the rustling of heartless. When she finally gets her head above the heartless to breathe and _look_ , she turns and sees the Kingdom Hearts door and Mickey getting further and further away from her at a scary rate.

The tide jams into the doorway she and Mickey came through minutes before, and soon enough, she is launched out of the cave with the door slamming closed behind her.

 

_\--_

 

She settles on the fact that regardless of how much longer she remains in this world, she will destroy all the heartless she can.

The heartless are never-ending. They break off from the tide, leaping at her haphazardly to try and shred her apart. She has settled into rhythm, dancing through writhing bodies and shearing them with her keyblade. All of her emotions are channeled into fighting, the hate, the anger, the disappointment--

but it is better that she is here rather than anyone else. She will deal with this so no one else will.

(Even though she wanted to go home. She was so close. So so _close--)_

She bats away any heartless that shoot past her and aim for the cave. She tears apart the tide piece by piece until it can no longer be called a tide. She destroys heartless until her hand becomes so numb from strain that she switches to her off-hand to continue fighting.

Hours have passed when she finally tears through the last heartless. It sizzles away in the ocean breeze. She has no doubt that Mickey and Riku have gotten to the other side safely, and for that, she is grateful. She at least saved _two_ people. She was able to prevent them from having everything fall apart on them.

(She had wanted to go home with them.)

She breathes heavily through her nose to even out her breath. The blisters on her right hand bleed from overwork. Absentmindedly, she tears off more of her sleeve to use as a makeshift bandage before swapping her keyblade to her right hand. It hurts, but it's not enough to slow her down.

But instead of going back from where she came from, she carefully lowers herself to the sand and flops backwards. The heartless can wait. She wants to lay down.

The sun is comfortable, real or not. She revels under the sunshine, finally getting long awaited rest for what seems like the first time in forever.

And there she decides she will fight to keep the world-- any world there is-- safe from being drowned in darkness.

 

\--

 

There is a counterpart ocean in the Realm of Darkness. It is nothing like any island's beach she has been to before. The sand is gray and rocks jut out of the water's surface in strange formations. There is no smell of salt water and it's fairly cold out here. The moon is at a standstill just above the horizon.

Although this sea is incomparable to the ones back home, it still gives her a sense of calm.

There hasn't been any heartless to fight since the scene started changing from ruined stones of a swallowed town to grainy soil that led to the sea. She has a feeling this place is relatively safe, though she doesn't dismiss her keyblade. She still hasn't this whole time.

The water laps quietly along the small shoreline, extending far enough to reach the toes of her boots. She takes a seat on a boulder at the edge of the water, pulling up one leg and leaving the other to touch the water. This place is quiet enough for her to take a break for the first time in what seems like forever. 

She briefly wonders how Mickey and Riku and Sora are doing. They must be doing _something_ because worlds are edging out of this realm, disappearing before her. She watched Cinderella's castle break apart into light before disappearing entirely. She only hopes that means it's returned to the light and that everyone who was once there are now okay.

She likes to think she's been helping too. Countless heartless has fallen by her blade, adding onto endless mounds. It amuses her to think that each heartless she cuts down could've been one to face keyblade wielders in the other realm-- she just simply lessened the load for them. Maybe. It's nice to think of it that way.

Leaning back on the boulder, she looks up into the dark sky. Her eyes close. _I hope they're doing well._  

Her will hasn't faltered yet. Maybe before she would've been disheartened by now, especially since there just has never been an end. But she knows there is something bigger to fight for, and she is alright with staying here and wasting away, possibly cutting at a supply of heartless that doesn't have an end.

No one has returned for her yet. She's alright with that.

And besides-- she's become used to the dreariness and gloomy nature of this place. She's nearly scared that if she goes home, she won't get use to it again.

_What a silly thought._

A small, whirring noise catches her ears. It's nearly quiet enough to be dismissed as white noise, but it's jarring from any other sound here. Aqua pulls herself upwards, kicking off the boulder to land in a defensive stance.

Something-- something in the water is glowing. It ripples in thin air, expanding by the second. It takes her back entirely. She-- she's never _seen_ something like this. Is it because she's in an abnormal part of this realm--?

The light extends up and out of the water, creating a pillar of light. She grips her keyblade and tries to prepare for something she's never faced before--

The light expands to the sides, as if like an entrance to a door. Her heart stops.

A hand reaches out of the light, reaching towards her.

"...Aqua?"

She swallows down her heart and takes the hand.


End file.
